1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to navigation and playback of audio files, and more particularly, to an apparatus for playing back audio files which can play back an audio file comprising a highlight section, and a method of navigating through audio files using the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Sometimes, there is a need to play back only part of an audio file that comprises various acoustic information such as music information, sound information, or voice information, according to a user's preferences or the purpose of use of the audio file. An example of an audio file played back in this manner is a ring tone of a mobile phone.
A portion of an audio file that is chosen to be played back is referred to as a highlight section, and this will hereinafter be described in detail with reference to FIG. 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, an audio file is played back between a time t0 and a time t3, and a line 100 represents variations in the amplitude of music being played back. When a portion of the audio file corresponding to a time period between a time t1 and a time t2 is chosen as a highlight section, only the portion chosen as the highlight section can be played back. Then, a user can easily identify the type of a music item in the audio file by listening to only the portion chosen as the highlight section.
In general, a portion of an audio file having a high amplitude such as music, sounds, or voices is chosen as a highlight section, thereby enabling a user to easily recognize music, sounds or voices included in the audio file.
However, when a portion of an audio file having a high amplitude is chosen as a highlight section, loudness and discontinuity in the playback of the audio file may cause aural discomfort or irritate a user.
In addition, when navigating through a plurality of music files on a highlight section-by-highlight section basis (this type of audio file navigation method will hereinafter be referred to as a highlight-navigation method), repeated discontinuities in the playback of the music files may also increase the aural discomfort of a user.
In this regard, this highlight-navigation method may not be well suited for providing a user interface for audio file navigation.
Typical portable audio file players need to be equipped with an additional function button in order to provide a highlight navigation function. However, since size increases in portable audio file players are clearly limited, the structure of portable audio file players becomes complicated and gives poor usability when they are equipped with such an additional function button. In addition, existing highlight navigation techniques do not provide a user action-based reasoning function.